Day 102: Edam to Haarlem

August 14, 2025

Day 102: Edam to Haarlem

Yesterday morning, I ended up leaving an hour after Tom and Dineke had left. Dineke told me I didn’t need to hurry and allowed me to fried some eggs. I took the time to send Warmshowers and Couchsurfing requests in Utrecht as well.

It was 27.2 miles from Edam to my Couchsurfing host’s place in Haarlem. The ride was once again very beautiful, easy, and flat. Around the half way mark, I stopped at Zaanse Schans where there are some windmills. The houses there are preserved from the 1850s and the area was the first industrial town in Western Europe. The place felt very touristy because there were so many people. I walked my bike along the path to the windmills, took some photos, and left soon after.

After taking a ferry across a waterway, I cycled more and arrived in Haarlem at Andrew and Alisa’s apartment, my Couchsurfing hosts for the night. Andrew and Alisa both work in the game development industry and they were still working for the day when I came in around 12:30 PM. I dropped off my bike at the apartment then walked to downtown Haarlem and had empanadas for lunch.

I saw the very impressive St. Bavo Church from the outside. Then I visited the modern art section of the Frans Hals Museum in Grote Markt. The main Frans Hals Museum is south of the town so I walked there to see the collection.

I decided to do an audio tour to learn more about Frans Hals and the paintings in the museum. Frans Hals was a 1600 portrait painter from Haarlem. Many Impressionist painters, including Van Gogh, were inspired by his painting style. Hals painted with broad brush strokes and focused on everyday people in addition to commissions.

I was too slow to go through the museum since I spent too much time listening to the audio guide. I only got through half of the museum when I was notified that the museum will close in five minutes. I wish I had timed myself better.

After touring the museum, I went to Albert Heijn grocery store to buy a bottle of advocaat. It’s a Dutch alcoholic drink that I wanted to try. I brought it back to Andrew and Alisa. They have never heard of it.

I took a shower while Alisa and Andrew went for a run, then I chatted with both of them for a bit when they came back. Andrew and I talked about personal finance and his passion for game development. I don’t think I had a passion for my profession when I worked in IT so I was happy that Andrew found his. Alisa and I chatted about traveling and their next vacation trip to Peru. Both Alisa and Andrew left their home countries of Russia and Ukraine, respectively. They like The Netherlands, but they don’t know where to settle yet.

On the balcony, we had a delicious pasta meal made by Alisa and drank some advocaat. The drink itself is quite thick since it’s made from eggs. Definitely something different. After dinner, Andrew let me try a Russian drink called Drunken Cherries since the bottle had a picture of a woman holding cherries in front of her chest. It tasted like cherries since it’s made from them.

I went to bed after sunset and woke up around 6:45. I will cycle to The Hague today and stay at another Couchsurfing host’s place.